Case Study: Red Bull Racing Taps Mobile Demand

August 3rd, 2010 by Advanced AutomationSubscribe to our RSS Feed

The Red Bull Racing Team was looking for a competitive advantage by adopting technology that was rugged enough to survive the grueling and hostile NASCAR racetrack environment. It also wanted to automate the collection and distribution of critical car performance and equipment data in real-time to speed decision making at the track. Working with real-time data would let the team make quicker decisions that could affect the outcome of each race – when to call for a pit stop, tracking how much fuel goes in the tank, how the tires are wearing. Mired for years in outdated pencil and paper and dry erase boards, the team needed a rugged PC that could run Microsoft Windows 7 and its racing software. One that could survive track temperatures reaching 138 degrees and being left out in the rain.  Mobile Demand offered an Intel® Atom™-powered solution that saved The Red Bull Racing Team both time and money.

The Customer Challenge

NASCAR is a high-tech sport where seconds separate the winner from the rest of the pack. It has a U.S. fan base of 75 million and through its three major series, Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck, sanctions more than 1,500 races at 100 tracks in 39 states, Canada and Mexico. The average attendance at an event is greater than 120,000 and fans spend some $3 billion annually on NASCAR officially licensed products.

Since its founding in 1948, it has helped define the racing industry and pushed automotive racing technology to the bleeding edge. But while the automotive technology took off, data collection technology lagged behind and the use of pencil, three-part paper forms and dry erase boards perpetuated. It would often take at least 15 minutes for that information to be available to all the other team members. Racing strategy is based on data. Many times the team would not get the data in time to make strategic decisions before the next pit stop. Red Bull Racing needed a way to collect and share more data in real time.

The MobileDemand Solution

The MobileDemand xTablet offered the mobility, processing power, ease of use and ruggedness needed to automate data collection, saving vital crew time before the race and shaving precious seconds during the race. The goal of using the xTablet T7000 ultra mobile computer was to automate data collection for the team to speed the sharing of information for quicker decision making.

What started out as a search for a product to replace a standalone bar code scanner produced a single, rugged PC with bar code scanning to automate routine and time consuming tasks. As the first NASCAR team to adopt the rugged xTablet PCs, Red Bull Racing has been able to take advantage of the Mobile Demand devices to give them a competitive edge.

The xTablets:

• Run Windows 7 in a fully mobile PC environment
• Run the team’s racing software
• Have a built-in bar code scanner that saves 60 to 90 minutes before each race in putting tire sets together
• Allow the teams to set up their own secure wireless network with built-in WiFi
• Let them send data anywhere at any time with built-in cell phone receivers
• Turn notes into real-time data with handwriting recognition
• Stand up to the intense heat, dust, rain and other hazards in typical race conditions
• Withstand repeated abuse, such as multiple drops to concrete or asphalt
• And, most importantly, enable sharing critical, real-time data that speeds race-day decision making and can potentially keep vehicles and drivers out of harm’s way

The tablets are being used by the spotter, tire specialists and the gasman to record and compute data. Integrated bar code scanners assist the tire specialist in organizing the race tires throughout the weekend. Timing and scoring provides the spotter with information to assist the driver throughout practices and actual races. And the tablet PC allows the gasman to provide fuel data to the race engineer in real time. “You would not believe the interest we’ve had from the other guys (NASCAR teams) wondering what we have, what we do with it,” said Chris Lambert, spotter,Red Bull Racing. “NASCAR itself has looked at it with us. There is no keeping this a secret around the track.”

The Results

“We’ve sped up the data flow probably more than a hundred fold,” said John Probst, TechnicalDirector, Red Bull Racing.“ The tire guys said thefirst weekend we had the tablets at the track it saved them 90 minutes just in sorting tires.” One example of that efficiency is the fact that tire specialists can use the built-in bar code scanner in the tablet to scan all the tires prior to the race and build sets of four for change outs during pit stops. By using that one function alone they now save 90 minutes before every race matching tires for sets.

The versatility and ruggedness of the tablet PC give the team a competitive advantage because it runs the team’s racing software on Microsoft Windows 7 and provides a quick, comprehensive data collection and sharing solution. And, unlike off-the-shelf PCs, the military rugged tablet PCs will survive an entire 39-event racing season.

When a multi-million dollar race is on the line, seconds matter. Now, the Red Bull team shares critical information in real time through a single, integrated automated data collection system that saves seconds, minutes and hours at every event. It’s setting a new standard at the track.

Contact Advanced Automation to learn more about how Mobile Demand rugged tablets can take you to the next level!

* This Case Study was produced and made possible by Mobile Demand!

Red Bull Taps Mobile Demand Video

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Case Study: Wireless Warehouse Coverage

July 29th, 2010 by Advanced AutomationSubscribe to our RSS Feed

Too Much Wireless Coverage?

When it comes to the implementation and installation of a wireless infrastructure in your warehouse, there are plenty of things to think about. What is the size of the warehouse? 10,000sq ft.? 500,000sq ft.? Are there divisions? Pallet racking, if so, how high. What kind of inventory is kept within the warehouse? What is the work flow and the intensity of it? What type of devices will be used for mobile computing? Hand held mobile computers? Vehicle mounted computers? These are just some basic questions that hopefully someone who’s implementing a wireless backbone would think about on the front end.

We recently received a call from a customer who had a situation where workers who, according to them at the time, believed they fell out of wireless range, lost connection and then had to reboot the mobile computer to regain a connection. They couldn’t figure out what was happening and obviously their own wireless infrastructure was working against them. A day later a couple of Advanced Automation wireless experts stopped by for a quick warehouse site survey to begin looking into the situation. After locating all of their access points and performing wireless coverage tests throughout their warehouse, the problem was easily identified. Over saturation, or simply put… TOO MUCH COVERAGE!!! (see right)

Advanced Automation was able to determine that there were no less that 14 different access points within wireless signal range at any given point.  That’s 14 different access points that the mobile computer is trying to sort through to communicate.  Advanced Automation programmer and wireless expert Jeff Clover said, “This causes interference and confuses the device trying to roam.  When you only have 3 non-overlapping channels (1,6,11), you don’t want a lot of access points on the same channel within range.”  This is a great example of what happens when either a company who’s expertise lies elsewhere takes on a wireless infrastructure project, or a company does it themselves.  They simply don’t understand the technology and strategy needed to efficiently and successfully set wireless infrastructure up.

What can be done? The first thing  would be to reduce the number of access points in the warehouse.  It’s overkill and think of what this company could have save purchasing half the number of access points they did?  Secondly, the signal output for each access point should be decreased from the max of 100mw, down to around 20-30mw.  (The image to the left represents the wireless coverage with the original number of access points still in place, but with the signal strength reduced.) Thirdly, the access points will also need to be repositioned to better fit the layout of the warehouse.  At the same time, make sure that every access point on the same channel are as far away from each other as possible.  With this configuration interference should AND was nearly eliminated.  The key is to reduce interference, but minimize the dead spots which you can see from the diagram included with this study.  The illustration to the right shows a much cleaner wireless layout that achieves the sharp decrease in AP interference and increases efficiency and production within their warehouse.

These illustrations only represent this Advanced Automation customer’s specific warehouse and internal operations.  Every warehouse is different and can present it’s own unique challenges when trying optimize wireless infrastructure coverage and efficiency.  It never hurts to have some who understands, not just the end goal, but how to most efficiently and optimally get there.   It’s worth it in the end!

Thanks for reading and happy bar code scanning!

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